Lando Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind Norris, finished in P17 as his team opted for a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at Turn Four early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the exit kerbs before rotating through the gravel trap, and was blessed to avoid just a slight brush of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
